$100 in 1914 is worth $606 in 1977,
because prices increased 506.0% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$606
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
506.0%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$606
Price difference ($100 base)
$506
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1914 → 1977
$606
$100 in 1977 → 1914
$16.50
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1977
Between 1914 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 506.0%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1977: the 1914 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 63 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1977 at the same ratio, 6.06: $1,000 becomes
$6,060, and $10,000 becomes $60,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1977
$1.00
$6.06
$5.00
$30.30
$10.00
$60.60
$20.00
$121
$50.00
$303
$100
$606
$500
$3,030
$1,000
$6,060
$5,000
$30,300
$10,000
$60,600
$100,000
$606,000
$1,000,000
$6,060,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1977
Between 1914 and 1977, food rose the most, up 542.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 424.0%, against 506.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$606
Food
3.00%
$642
Apparel
2.66%
$524
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1977 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$388
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$606
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $176 by
1944, on its way to $606 in 1977; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $606; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1977: $100 is worth $606 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1977/